Her Warriors (17 page)

They arrived at the dojo a short while
later. Geir didn’t like exposing Jacki to the enemy, but if there
was no other way, he would watch over her. First though, he hoped
to talk with the prisoner himself and find a way to limit the
ladies’ involvement.

Jake met them in the main room of the dojo.
A contingent of Royal Guards was arrayed around the building and
Jake seemed troubled. Even though he could see the future, he was
still human. Geir had come to trust the man, but it was hard to
gauge what his expression meant.

“I have to make a call. First though, I want
the ladies to take a look at him through the glass,” Jake said.
“It’s mirrored, so barring some kind of arcane magic, he won’t see
them. But I have to be sure of the guy’s allegiances before we
decide on our next moves here.”

“What aren’t you saying?” Beau asked, his
voice laced with an angry growl.

Jake grimaced. “I think the guy is
Altor
Custodis
. If that’s the case, we need to figure out if he’s
working for one of the corrupt branches of the AC or merely a
watcher.”

“Either way, he can’t be allowed to continue
his surveillance activities,” Geir said firmly before Beau could
let his anger loose.

“You’ll get no argument on that from me,”
Jake was quick to affirm. “But if he’s innocent, we need to handle
this differently than we will if he’s corrupt. The
Altor
Custodis
has been nothing but an observational organization
until recently.”

“That may be,” Bettina spoke up. “But we now
know the corruption in the
Altor Custodis
goes all the way
to the top.” Everyone was silent as the High Priestess spoke.
“While the organization’s goals have never been violent or evil
before, that has changed. We will have to be very certain of this
man’s allegiances before we make any decisions.”

“Agreed,” Jake said, pulling out his phone.
“I plan to call Ben Steel in on this. He knows the AC better than
any of us and last I heard, he was still in North Carolina. He can
get up here fast if I ask him.”

“Let me get a look at him first,” Bettina
said, already on the move.

She glided rather than walked, Geir thought,
moving faster than he could keep up with as she went unerringly to
the viewing room he’d only just discovered was part of his new
domain.

They all followed her into the small room
that was equipped with the promised two way glass. They could see
the man on the other side, handcuffed to a conveniently placed pipe
in one corner of the room.

“The
Altor Custodis…
” Bettina began
speaking as if giving a lecture as Jacki reached her side. “Their
brotherhood began around the same time as the
Venifucus
, but
with much less evil purpose. Where the
Venifucus
were
interested only in supporting their liege, Elspeth, the Destroyer
of Worlds, the
Altor Custodis
formed when the humans of that
long ago time became aware of Others in their midst. They were
tasked by their leaders to watch and report on all supernatural
creatures they knew about and to do their best to discover as many
Others as they could. Their records of our bloodlines now go back
many centuries and they still have agents all over the world,
reporting back through their leadership structure.”

“They track us all?” Beau asked, his anger
still ramped up but under control from what Geir could see.

“As many of us as they are aware of,”
Bettina replied without looking at him. She was focusing her regard
on the prisoner. “Many of their operatives are marked in some way.
See the tattoo on his left forearm?” Bettina looked over at Jacki,
as if waiting for her response. When Jacki nodded, Bettina
continued. “That seems to be just a mundane tattoo. The mark of a
soldier in the AC’s employ. I don’t sense any other marks on him. I
would be able to see the glow of a magical tattoo, even through his
clothing. The
Venifucus
marks their operatives with the
magical tattoo so they can track their people willing or not. So
far, so good with this guy…” Bettina trailed off as she continued
to look at the prisoner.

After about three minutes more of intense
scrutiny and a few mumbled words of high magic, she sighed and
stepped away from the glass. She turned to Jake and nodded toward
the phone still in his hand.

“Call Ben Steel. He might be able to help us
sort this out in a way that could work to our advantage.” Her
pretty blue eyes narrowed shrewdly before she turned back to the
window, taking Jacki’s hand and talking to her pupil softly, giving
instruction.

An hour later, Bettina had shared all sorts
of information with Jacki about how to spot magical tattoos with
the aid of a particular magic word they had found that worked with
Jacki’s brand of magic. She was seeing things in new ways that
really amazed her if she took a moment to think about it. She had
always had a lot of magic at her disposal, but with Bettina to show
her how to tap into it in very specific ways, she was able to
harness more of it than she ever had before.

There was no doubt that she was a changed
woman from the one who had entered a battle not of her making in
North Carolina those weeks ago. Since that showdown at the stream
where she had called on the Lady’s power and been answered beyond
her wildest dreams, she had changed on a fundamental level that she
was only just coming to understand. It might take years to fully
grasp all the changes that had been made to her being in that split
second of the Goddess’s intervention, but it was a journey Jacki
was willing—no, eager—to take.

For having touched the pure Light of the
Goddess in her hour of greatest need, Jacki now knew the path her
life was meant to take. Bettina might have taken her by surprise
with the request to teach her how to be a priestess, but now that
Jacki had had some time to assimilate at least some of what had
happened, she saw very clearly that destiny was at work in her
life, in surprising, gratifying, purely benevolent ways. At least
for now.

She would follow where the path led her,
with Bettina’s guidance.

The guys had gotten coffee and snacks from
somewhere and when Bettina finally ended their minute study of the
man behind the glass, Jacki was surprised to find an hour had
passed. She welcomed the cup of coffee Beau pressed into her hands
and noticed Geir, acting chivalrous, doing the same for
Bettina.

A warm wave of caring swept over her for
both men. They had watched over her even when she was zoned out,
listening to Bettina’s lecture on how to evaluate a potential enemy
from twenty feet away. She realized only then that her inner beast,
which was always alert to danger, had felt safe with the two tiger
males watching over her. It had stayed calm and allowed Jacki to
give her full concentration to Bettina’s lesson.

From the way Bettina grinned at her over the
rim of her coffee cup, the High Priestess knew it too.

“Ben Steel is on his way up the mountain,”
Jake said as he walked back into the room. He had left earlier and
hadn’t been seen for at least an hour.

“How did he get here so fast?” Beau
asked.

“He was already on his way,” Jake said,
smiling. He then shifted his gaze directly to Jacki, still
grinning. “Seems your Aunt Sophia, called the fox Alpha and told
him to send the human our way two days ago. They drove up from
North Carolina with the express instructions to arrive today. I
have to confess, I didn’t see a thing about any of this.” Jake sat
down at the rectangular table on the side of the room around which
they’d all gathered.

“There, there,” Bettina reached out to pat
Jake’s hand. “Remember, you’re newly mated. I suspect your seer’s
gift was giving you a bit of a holiday so you could spend time with
your new mate and help begin to make this place into a nest of your
own. Sophia Grantham was there to pick up the slack for you this
time. Not every seer sees the same things, as you well know. You
might have been too close to this to perceive it.”

“Yeah, my ego is a little stung, but I’ll
get over it,” Jake said easily. “I’m just glad he’s almost here. I
want to sort this out as soon as possible. Did you discover
anything else?”

“From everything we can see from this
distance, he looks like a normal human male. He has an obvious
Altor Custodis
connection, but nothing magical about him
that I can detect from here,” Bettina reported. “Jacki and I tried
several different magical methods to coax hidden things into view
and they produced no results. I would like to see him face to face,
as soon as you deem it safe, just to be certain, but I’m reasonably
sure there’s nothing magical about the man.”

“That’s a relief,” Jake stated, letting go
of his held breath. “I don’t like the idea that we just got here
and already someone is watching us. Ria’s had enough of that
sh—uh…stuff—to last a lifetime.”

Jacki laughed at his obvious attempt to
clean up his language, but she didn’t comment on it. Jake was a
good guy. It was obvious to Jacki that he was very much in love
with his new mate despite the fact that Jake was only human. He had
significant gifts in being able to see the future at times, but he
was not a shapeshifter.

That had to have been hard for Ria to
accept, seeing as how the other woman was the leader of the
pantera noir
shifter Clan. But then, Jacki was learning,
mating was something even more special than she had always been led
to believe. It was magical and…sacred. That was the way she felt
about her ever-strengthening bonds with both of her mates.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, Jake,”
Geir promised in a firm voice. “You can leave it with us. If the
prisoner hasn’t seen your face yet, I advise you to stay in here
and keep it that way.” Jake looked like he wanted to argue. “For
Ria’s sake,” Geir added, and Jake visibly backed down from whatever
objection he had been going to make.

The human, Ben Steel, arrived at that
moment, escorted by two Royal Guards who had been sent to meet him.
He greeted the men with firm handshakes and low words, then turned
to nod respectfully to Bettina and Jacki.

“Is this the guy?” Ben walked right up to
the glass and took a hard look at the prisoner. “Damn careless of
him to get caught. He knows what you are.” Ben looked closer at the
prisoner. “I’ve seen him before. I even met him once. Thought he
was okay.”

“You know him?” Jacki asked, surprised into
speech though she could see everyone else was thinking the same
thing.

Ben turned to face them. “I’ve met him. I
don’t know him well, but I remember the basics from his file. His
name is Harper Sagtakos. He’s from Long Island. Part Native
American. Member of the tribe out there on the forks of the Island.
Back when I started with the AC, I considered him for my team, but
was guided away from him. That alone suggests he might be okay
because the people I was guided toward instead, turned out to be
traitors.”

Silence met his words as everyone took in
what he had said. Ben stood for a moment, clearly thinking, then
spoke into the silence of the room.

“Let me talk to him. He’ll remember me.
Maybe I can find out what he was up to.”

“Not alone,” Bettina said at once. “We
couldn’t see any marks, but there’s still a chance there’s
something hidden that I wouldn’t sense from here.”

Ben looked concerned. “I’m not sure, milady.
I couldn’t guarantee your safety.”

Bettina laughed as she stood and walked over
to Ben, taking his arm. “Don’t worry about me, young man. I assure
you, I can take care of myself.”

She escorted him out the door and everyone
turned to watch as the two entered the room on the other side of
the glass. The prisoner looked up at the door, defiance in every
line of his body until he got a good look at the two who had
entered. Then he started cursing.

“Fuck, man, what the hell is going on
here?”

“Easy, Harper. There’s a lady present.” Ben
moved aside as Bettina strode past him, walking boldly up to the
prisoner, looking him in the eye.

“Are you here to harm us, agent of the
Altor Custodis
?” she asked bluntly.

“If you know I’m
Altor Custodis
, then
you know I’m only here to watch and observe,” he replied. “Did he
tell you my affiliation?” Harper nodded toward Ben.

“I know you are
Altor Custodis
from
your mark,” she stated, tapping his arm, just above the handcuff
that kept him chained to the pipe in the corner.

“You’re not human, are you?” Harper asked,
seeming to become a bit more cautious.

Bettina laughed and the tinkling tone
charmed everyone who heard it.

“Will you write that in your report to your
AC bosses?” she asked, challenging him. Jacki held her breath as
she watched the scene unfold on the other side of the glass.

Harper tilted his head, narrowing his eyes
as he looked down at her. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re a smart man,” Ben
interrupted, drawing his attention. “You should realize by now that
the AC has been infiltrated by
Venifucus
agents. They used
my reports to find and murder the people I’d been assigned to
watch.”

“You have proof?” Ben’s expression looked
open, if wary, not argumentative to Jacki’s eyes.

Ben nodded slowly. “Sadly, yes. A trail of
death followed my reports all across the country. I finally figured
it out a few months ago.”

Harper seemed to wrestle with his response.
He kept quiet while everyone studied him. He also squirmed a little
under Bettina’s scrutiny, Jacki thought, but then again, who
wouldn’t? Bettina could be a very scary lady, despite her innocent
appearance.

“Is that why you were so blatant here? Did
you want to get caught?” Ben finally asked. The idea hadn’t
occurred to Jacki, but she could see Ben had hit a nerve when
Harper stiffened and gripped the pipe harder. “Or is it a double
fake. Are you really working for the
Venifucus
and wanted to
get closer by being so inept it was inevitable you would be
captured? I know your skills, Harper. I know you’re not this much
of an amateur. You wanted to get caught.”